Romance Has No Rules
by captainofswanandqueen
Summary: Being sent to her room was a common thing for Regina Mills. What wasn't common was her next door neighbour, Emma Swan, to talk to her from opposite her bedroom window. Their friendship lead to a romance. One that required many breakings of rules.
1. Chapter 1

Informing her mother of her grades was like slowly descending into battle. Very viscous battle.

Firstly, it would be simply walking into her house. That felt like marching onto the battleground.

Next would come the evil eyes, where her mother was perched on her usual pedestal at the kitchen, glasses glinting and cup of tea at the ready.

Then, she would stop at her mother and hold out the paper with the information of her grades, nervously awaiting the inevitable.

Finally, her mother would explode.

"I mean, really, Regina! This is ridiculous! You got a _B minus_ for English? Really?!"

Wait till she saw maths.

" _C minus?!_ Regina, did you not revise? Was all that time spent in your room revising or painting your nails?" her mother snapped.

One thing Regina disliked was how her mother was either too stereotypical or too traditional. If her daughters weren't studying, they were surely being young misfits by painting their nails, doing their hair or secretly meeting boys.

Honestly, mother.

Regina _had_ indeed been revising. So much so that her brain felt like it had been battered several times by a golf club. It was the ridiculous amount that the teachers expected them to remember which was her problem. Plus, the fact that they seemed insistent on planting exams in the sweltering heat of summer, with ice-cream and cool drinks in their minds rather than the hot and bothering equation of an algebraic sum.

"You're grounded, Regina. For a month."

Whipping around irritably, Regina huffed and stormed to her room. No matter how hard she tried, nothing would be good enough for her mother.

On the way, Regina didn't miss her older, irritating sister Zelena loitering at the shadowy corner of the hall. Especially as Zelena was unmistakably snickering.

"Shut up." Regina mumbled, as her sister's snickers grew louder.

Another thing she disliked was how Zelena was considered the 'perfect girl' in their family. Regina's older sister always maintained top grades, was boasted about by many teachers, somehow was an amazing athlete along the way and everybody loved her.

Regina, on the other hand, was what you could describe as the complete opposite. It didn't particularly bother her. But for some reason, it bothered her mother. And because of this, Regina had to cope with her mother constantly shoving it in her face that she was not as 'perfect' as Zelena.

* * *

Once the door of her bedroom was slammed with the desired effect, Regina dropped her school bag by the door and slumped onto her bed, which was situated by her bedroom window.

Her bedroom was as simple as you could get; a bed, a wardrobe, a desk with the shittiest laptop on top and a neatly arranged row of bookshelves. Nothing special, although that didn't stop Regina from planning. Many bedroom ideas she had come across, but the Las Vegas one was the type she fell in love with.

When she had plucked up the courage to show her mother the pictures she'd come across on the internet (about a year ago), all Regina's mother did was let out a simpering chuckle.

"Keep dreaming, sweetheart."

That's exactly what she did. And she was going to do more.

When the heat of the sun that shone through her window became unbearable, Regina opened it slightly. Her attempt at cooling down her room was unsuccessful. Turned out that outside was just as boiling as her room. Great.

A sudden squeal of joy caught her attention, stopping her from returning to her bed.

Peering out her window, Regina saw from an angle her next door neighbours all in the sunshine, enjoying undoubtedly the beautiful weather and the end of school term.

Even if she would never admit it, Regina could say that she envied her neighbours. Their life seemed literally like a perfect fairy tale. Honestly, the next thing she knew, the whole street would be as perfect as freshly made gingerbread houses.

The parents— Mr and Mrs Nolan, as she recited— were laying on deck chairs, bathing in the sweet syrup sun. Hand in hand, just like a cliché couple. Their three kids were playing around the garden, laughing and just genuinely messing around.

Regina knew the eldest child, the only girl, was called Emma. Simply because Emma was her lab partner, which was an embarrassing fact in itself; where Emma thrived in Science, Regina struggled. Too much so that she longed to drop the damned subject.

The eldest boy she knew was called Henry— Regina remembered this because her own father was called Henry— so when her family moved here and met the neighbours, it was quite a coincidence.

The youngest boy, Regina wasn't sure the name to, however.

After a while of sadly watching this happy little family, Regina sighed and returned to her bed. She sure as hell didn't have a perfect family. Her sister was an irritating brat, her mother was too strict for words and her father was constantly shying away from the rest of his family.

Worst of all, she now had a whole summer break with nothing to do. Except remain obediently in her bedroom until her mother was satisfied.

* * *

Reading a book was a way to pass the time. Not particularly her favourite thing to do, but oh well.

It was when the sun dimmed that she began to grow tired. She glanced out of the window, expecting to see the curtains that blocked the window of her neighbour's house that was directly opposite her. Instead she saw Emma, grinning right at her.

"Have you watching me this whole time, you creep?" Regina hissed, snapping the book shut and opening her window wider as she realised that Emma also had her own window open.

"Not much better than you, considering how you were watching us earlier."

Regina's stomach plummeted and her cheeks burned scarlet. Sometimes she did things in an absent minded way which resulted with the most embarrassing things.

"Sorry, but I'm stuck here and I was hot and you were quite frankly being very conspicuous."

She was not pleased when Emma chuckled.

"Very full of yourself, aren't you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Regina frowned.

"You said you were 'hot'."

Oh wow. Seriously.

"You don't think I am?" Regina questioned, feeling like she was sauntering into some sort of game.

"Hmm, I don't know," Emma tilted he head in mock thoughtfulness, sticking her tongue out the cutest way. "I'm still pondering."

This time, Regina found that Emma wasn't the only one who chuckled. She didn't miss the way Emma gazed at her throughout the silence that ensued.

"So, I feel like you wanted to start a conversation with me."

Emma grinned again at Regina's statement.

"Yeah. I was playing on the Xbox, but then my annoying brothers stole it off me." She huffed. "So I came up here, 'cause mom and dad were being all sloppy again. Really, I just wanted to chat."

Regina smiled. It would be nice to chat.

"REGINA!"

She was in deep shit when her mother yelled at her like that.

Grimacing at Emma, Regina braced herself before swinging off her bed.

"Aw, come on. Wanna chat tomorrow, then?" She faintly heard Emma call.

In reply, Regina turned and nodded, returning the smirk of the blonde. However random this was, considering how Emma had never said a word to her the whole two years Regina had been at Storybrooke High (except for when they were leading out a Science experiment of some sort), Regina was glad that at least she wouldn't spend her grounded month in her bedroom isolated with a book.


	2. Chapter 2

_So I feel like I owe an apology for my lack of briskness when updating this. The main problem is the fact that I have been spending a hell of a lot of my time preparing in advance for exam finals. Yep, and I'm expecting I'll come back home with similar grades to Regina in this story and probably be banished to a distant realm by my parents or something... Anyway, I'm quite determined to do updates every two days, if not, daily, for my different stories, now that the looming strain of major exams are over._

* * *

Watching an insect ponder on whether it should go through her window or not, Regina sighed. When Emma said 'tomorrow', there wasn't really a specific time to accompany it. So she had assumed that Emma was referring to around the same time as the previous night. But it appeared the blonde was either busy or was at this current moment snickering at Regina's gullibility with her friends. If Regina was honest, she wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter.

Giving up on staring at the blinding vibrate yellow curtains, Regina sort of melted onto her bed. It was hot enough to do so anyway.

A gentle knocking on her bedroom door startled her as if someone had been pounding it. Hoarsely, Regina called, "Yeah, dad?"

Only her father would knock so gently. Zelena would knock as if her and the door were having a boxing match and her mother would spank it.

Slowly, her father opened the door and came into the room. He carried a tray of food— which from where Regina lay, looked delicious—and smiled at her. Gently, he placed the tray at her desk and wished her goodnight.

"Daddy?" The last time Regina had called him that was when she was ten. Now she was literally sixteen.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Thanks."

Smiling in return, her father walked to her and placed a kiss on her forehead. Then he left the room.

After devouring the pizza and guzzling the juice, Regina cast a glare the book. In all seriousness, she had given up trying to comprehend its contents. Something along the lines of _'We are true love and will always find a way,'_ put her off. There was a certain extent of corniness she could take, and this just crossed the line way too far.

So what was her source of entertainment now? The ceiling. Actually, the sunlight rippling it across it like the waves of a calm summer sea was quite entertaining. _Great, Regina. You're now officially going crazy._ Her anthology appeared to be coming true; Regina could swear she had heard something like ' _psst'._ Ya'know, the kind in the movies when someone was trying to attract the other's attention. Deciding that it would be better for her (and her sanity) to dismiss it as one of the whispering strands of wind getting out of rhythm, Regina huffed.

Rolling around so that the window was staring at her back, Regina set her glower to the desk opposite her bed.

"Regina, are you there?" _Emma?_

Regina quite literally scrambled up to peer through the window. _Pathetic, Regina. Are you that desperate?_ Well, the summer break lasted about two months, so isolation was quite undesirable. And indeed, Emma was sitting at her window, a grin quickly rising on her lips when she watched Regina come into sight.

"Regina, hi! I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier, my hockey coach wanted me to stay back from lesson to teach some titchy kids. She said it would boost my ability in it…" Faltering at Regina expression, Emma's smile slowly faded as well.

"Are you alright?"

 _Shit, you're doing it again._ Regina didn't know why, but she had the tendency stare at Emma when the blonde spoke. Whether it was the bright smile or the glint of her intriguingly mossy eyes, Regina quite felt herself to be in some sort of enchantment. Which sounded utterly ridiculous, but hey, she did 'a lot of ridiculous things', according to her mother.

But the worst part was the way Regina's face seemed to mould into one which expressed no emotion. To Emma, Regina probably looked like she was about to faint.

Swiftly clearing her throat, Regina blamed it on the heat. "Honestly, I prefer the cold to this." To emphasise, Regina indicated her surroundings with her hand. She could have sworn the blonde had arched her eyebrow—for a mere second—before she considered if the heat really was getting to her. Expecting Emma to comment on the subject, Regina inwardly braced herself. Instead:

"Yeah, I get that a hell of a lot," Emma's smile was back, bold and bright as ever. "Especially when it comes to the sports clubs I have to do."

"What kind of clubs do you go to?" Regina found herself asking.

The blonde responded with sigh before listing them out: "Hockey, soccer, swimming, baseball, basketball, football, and, if given the time, I hang out at a car mechanic my parents know—he usually lets me drive, even if I'm technically not allowed." Looking up from her listing fingers, Emma broke into laughter at Regina's face. A way to describe it was perplexed; another way to describe it was dumbfounded.

"All those clubs?"

"That's just the sports ones," Emma informed her, a hint of humour tinging her voice. Awe-struck was all Regina felt. She personally could not in any way be bothered to drag herself to one club, never mind numerous ones at a time.

"Wow. That's all I can really say." Emma laughed again, but this time at Regina's words. Regina noticed that the other girl's cheeks were steadily blossoming to red.

"Gee, thanks." After a while of chuckling to each other, Emma raised a question that really should have remained dead. "How about you? You have any clubs?"

"Nope. In fact, I'm grounded."

"Oh… How come?" When Regina looked up to the person opposite her, she saw a genuine concern. _Or maybe that's just wishful thinking._

"Well, my mother didn't think my grades were good enough." For some reason, Regina no longer could bring herself to look at Emma. While she drew patterns with her finger onto her palm, Regina continued: "As far as she's concerned, I have no talent." _Regina, are you crazy? Are you seriously spouting your sob story to_ Emma? _Really?_ As the silence ensued, the thoughts chanted in her head.

"Well, I actually don't think that's true," Surprised, Regina raised her head back to Emma. What was that on the blonde's face? Sympathy? Pity? "I remember you slayed in the school play. You got that certificate, remember?" Yes, she did. But her mother claimed it to simply be a piece of paper with prints on it whereas Zelena had medals and trophies.

"You should be doing more at your age." Was her mother's congratulations.

"And in English, when you put your hand up for everything; you're good at that!"

"That's nothing. I can't even answer a proper question in Science."

"Right." Something about Emma's tone was worrying. "I'm coming to your side."

"What?" Regina hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"Yep. That's what I'm well known for."

"Emma, you can't just climb to my window!"

"Try me," the blonde replied, smirking.

"Fine. I'll try you: do you really wish to possess some broken bones?"

"C'mon, it'll be like Romeo and Juliet." At this, Regina's stomach flipped. She wouldn't mind being in a Romeo-Juliet situation with Emma—at all. Her mother would kill her, but who cared? This was her mind and she was perfectly entitled to it. _What is wrong with you, Regina? You only talked to the girl yesterday, geez._ And every day prior to that, Regina had felt the need to say something—anything— to her.

"Actually, Romeo didn't climb from across, he came from the bottom."

"Oh, bollocks to the accuracy of a play." Emma waved it off whilst she scavenged her room for whatever she was looking for.

"Why d'you even want to come to my room anyway?" Regina questioned, yet another attempt to steer the direction in which Emma picked.

"Well, I want to prove to you that you are something."

"Can't you just do that from where you're standing?"

"Yes, I could." Emma halted, an exhilarated gleam adorning those green, green eyes. "But what would be the fun in that?"

Nothing more Regina said would convince Emma to change her mind. Either her mother would come in, find them red-handed and murder Regina or Emma's parents would kick up a fuss about their missing daughter and Cora would, still, murder Regina. Basically, either way she was in a shitload of trouble. So why was she excited?

* * *

 _I would like to thank Chloejdt for reviewing and to those of you who read my story. I would never say no to a review..._


	3. Chapter 3

_Next chapter is up! So I'm probably going for the every two day routine, 'cause I make lots of mistakes with the ideas zooming through my head while I type and I have to keep re-reading. The ironic part is the fact that I_ still _am prone to making mistakes, but oh well._ _Thanks for reviewing, for the compliments, for reading, for understanding my exam problem and I'm glad to know y'all enjoy/like the story. I know I'm enjoying writing it :)_

* * *

If there was one thing Regina had learned, it was how strong-headed and stubborn Emma was. The blonde had retrieved a couple skipping ropes, tied those together and ordered Regina to tie it to her side. All the while, the only thing Regina could think was _shit, shit, shit._

"Emma, careful!"

"Shut up, Regina!" She grunted, slinging herself onto the rope and making her way there.

"Holy shit, she's going to fall." Regina murmured.

"I heard that!" Emma paused midway, slung from the rope like an infuriating sloth. Her upside-down face grinned at Regina.

"Emma, do you have a death wish?"

"I do this every other day… This is nothing, trust me."

"That's quite hard to do."

"Doing what I'm doing or trusting me?" The blonde raised her eyebrow. _Damn, it's so cute when she does that._ Shoving the thought away promptly, Regina replied with her own words:

"It's hard to understand why you're quite literally risking your life."

Rolling her eyes, Emma released her hands from her makeshift rope. Grinning at Regina's shock, Emma began swinging herself. Considering how her legs were the only lifeline she had—hooked onto the rope that wasn't the most advised for supporting a human being's weight—Regina snapped.

"Emma, stop that! You will fall and die!"

Scoffing, Emma replied: "You sound like my mother," As she raised her hands and gripped the rope with them (much to Regina's relief), she grunted, "actually, not really. Mom would probably say something like 'Emma you come back right now, you could fall!'"

"Yeah, well, my mom would say: 'If you don't die when you fall, I will kill you myself.'"

At that, Emma laughed as she continued to make progress towards Regina's window; she genuinely thought Regina was joking.

"Your mom must be strict then." Emma puffed. Slightly distracted by the alarming creaking noise in which the skipping ropes made, Regina urged her to hurry up.

"Y'know, if I got a nickel for every time you said that, I would be—"

"Faster." Regina hissed.

"I was about to say 'filthy rich', but whatever floats your boat the most I guess." Emma grinned, coming tantalisingly slowly towards some source of safety. _Is she doing this on purpose?_

"Emma, this isn't a joke."

When the blonde sighed, Regina knew she had finally won whatever this was. Fearfully, she watched Emma increase her pace and reach her side. _At last._ Without noticing, Regina's breathing had constricted so much so that she felt as if her chest were being squeezed by a python. Now as Emma reached the window, her breathing flowed as smoothly as spreading butter on bread. The question was: _why?_ She supposed watching your next door neighbour falling to their doom would always have a traumatising impact on you, but surely not _that_ much; not so that she felt she could scarcely breathe. She'd only really talked to Emma for like, twenty minutes. _What has gotten into you Regina?_

"Shit!" Emma's outburst dragged Regina from her haze of thought. Before she knew it, Regina was flat against the ground with Emma on top of her. If Regina was honest, she was slightly disappointed that the blonde hadn't fallen with her face towards Regina's… _Shut up, Regina!_ So this was what having a crush was like. Regina wouldn't know—she'd never taken a fancy to anyone before. _Wow, less than twenty minutes talking to this girl and you fancy her,_ she scolded herself. _Snap out of it. She's probably only talking to you 'cause she feels freakin' sorry for you, Regina._

"Sorry!" Emma muttered, tumbling off her swiftly. "I lost balance…" Sheepishly, she gave a tentative smile.

"It's fine." Regina mumbled, trying to smile back. Was this really, for Emma, an act of sympathy?

"REGINA!" The two girls in the room leaped—criminals caught in mid-crime—before Emma skidded underneath Regina's bed and the brunette on top, deciding too late that she should grab her book and pretend to read it. Instead, she now had to make do with the cover of _'I was staring up at the ceiling the whole time like an innocent, obedient girl'_ while her sister burst through the door without invitation and prowled around the room like a predator. _All she needs,_ Regina thought—warily eying Zelena's ominous stare, _is a bloodhound's nose, and she will literally drag Emma out of her hiding place._

"Mom's taking me out; we're going to my soccer match. She said that dad would know if you set one foot out of your room so don't even think about it and…" Inwardly, Regina grimaced. Either her Zelena had noticed her sister laying on her bed with no entertainment of any form—undoubtedly a suspicious scene—or she peered close enough to notice one end of the skipping rope tied to Regina's window handle, which then led to Emma's window. Thankfully, it wasn't the latter.

"Were you seriously staring at the ceiling this whole time?" She scoffed. Typical Zelena. _Though, if Emma hadn't shown up I probably would have become the ceiling's best friend by now._

"Yes." Curtly, she answered her sister.

"Don't need to be so rude." Zelena contemplated/scrutinized/scanned Regina's brain for a while before claiming: "If I didn't know any better, you're hiding a boy in here somewhere." _Girl, actually._ Attempting not to smirk (for that would only encourage Zelena's theory), and glad she wouldn't look guilty—as technically, her sister's statement wasn't true—Regina replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"If I didn't know any better, Zelena, your boy toy's bored with you."

Scoffing (again), Zelena told her sister "I get bored with the guy; he doesn't get bored with me. That's how it works and always will do." With that, Zelena turned an flounced out of the room, slamming the door behind her. _Never mind, she would make a terrible blood hound... or predator for that matter. She took the bait faster than a fish could!_ Trying not to be too pleased with herself, Regina lifted herself off her bed.

"That's Zelena, right?" Emma asked, rolling out from under Regina's bed.

"Yeah, how d'you know?"

"I'm in a lot of her clubs."

"Poor you." Regina replied, smirking. "I'm constantly trying to find an escape route from her."

Chuckling, Emma clapped her hands together and rubbed them.

"So now what?" Regina was already half-exhausted at jittering over the blonde's safety on the rope.

"Now, we play— as in, we act a play. Did that work well?" When Regina raised an eyebrow in confusion, Emma shook her head and cleared her throat. "Let's do Shakespeare. You have any copies?"

"What is the point of this?" Was Regina's answer, nonetheless sliding her fingers over her bookshelf and taking out the first one she saw: Romeo and Juliet. _Oh, the irony._

"Well you're a killer actor. I think we should start with your strengths before your weaknesses."

"What are you, my teacher?" Now Regina was the one who scoffed.

"Nope, just your friend."

"After twenty minutes." _Shut up, Regina!_

"Hmm, I think it was thirty." Glancing at Emma, Regina saw the faint smile on the blonde's lips. _She's not kidding about the friend thing._

"Ten more minutes really makes a difference!" Regina sarcastically told her, despite the fact she was grinning.

"Now, I play dibs on Romeo." Emma snatched the book out of Regina's unsuspecting hands.

"No way in hell am I being Juliet."

"Then we'll go to heaven and do it." She snorted at Emma sarcasm."Mom would kill me if she heard me say something like that." Emma added. Eyeing the stubborn blonde, Regina wouldn't admit defeat. She had lost too many battles—her enemies consisting of her mother and sister—and she was determined to win this one.

"Make me." Regina pouted.

That ignited a spark in the blonde's eyes. She advanced on Regina, smirking all the way. Unsure of what was happening (had the temperature _really_ increased by double, or was it just her?), Regina stayed put.

"I will." They danced across Regina skin and echoed in her ears. The two word that sent a shiver down her spine, despite the sweltering heat. The worst part was, how casual Emma could be as she walked forward to gather some forms of props. When Regina tilted her head, she noticed the blonde was ever so slightly, in the _faintest_ fashion—with a tinge of smugness—smirking. And Regina wondered if Emma knew what effect she had just had on the brunette.


End file.
